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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a slog. The Magdalens try to escape the convent, they’re punished. They escape, they’re recaptured. They try to escape, they’re punished...and on and on. If the pacing was meant to give me a sense of how monotonous working in the laundry was, mission accomplished.
Not much happened at all until the last few chapters when EVERYTHING did. And still, it didn’t answer all the questions I had.
Lea was the most likable character of the bunch, which is weird since she was also the hardest to relate to. Teagan is fine, and all I can say about Nora is YIKES.
I think I was supposed to sympathize with the Mother Superior who was making their lives miserable, but she was so cartoonishly awful even a Hail Mary reveal toward the end couldn’t redeem her in the slightest.
In short, maybe read a few Wikipedia entries on Magdalene laundries instead.
I always hesitate when giving books one star. The truth is that it's rare for me to give a book one star. I use two and three stars all the time, but I tend to reserve one stars for books I truly hate. And I didn't hate The Magdalen Girls. But upon reflecting on it, I realize that there's nothing I remotely liked about it either. I mean, the premise was interesting, but that's about it. And seeing as how this is based on a true story, this book shouldn't get points on the premise because it's not really original. So, we go back to me not liking anything in this book.
First things first: The writing in The Magdalen Girls leaves a lot to be desired. It is extremely simplistic. Now, that's something I can overlook depending on what else the book has going for it, but it was really noticeable in this book. There's just a lot of telling and very little showing. Furthermore, the writing was clunky and awkward. For example, the reference to Sister Anne and Mother Superior was not done well at all. I didn't figure out that this was supposed to be one person until I was a ways into the book. Why refer to this character as Mother Superior AND Sister Anne? It does nothing but confuse the readers.
The character development in The Magdalen Girls wasn't any better than the writing. And by that I mean that there was very little development. You don't really get to know Teagan nor Nora nor Lea that well at all. And I saw very little growth in them. Also, my God were Teagan and Nora prone to doing stupid, stupid things all the time. Before that, I merely didn't care about them. After that, I started getting supremely annoyed by them. They kept getting caught doing this things because they were (and it really does bear repeating) really stupid. If you're going to be sneaky, again, please be smart about it.
Mother Superior/Sister Anne might be the only character that one might think had some growth, but really she's just badly developed. She comes across as one of the biggest cartoon villains known to man. She doesn't come off as a flawed character battling between good and evil, but rather comes across as someone who's an actual sociopath. It was a bit too much. I kept expecting her to start twirling a mustache. And then, after all this build up of her being the biggest villain since Dolores Umbridge, I'm supposed to believe that she's repentant? Nope. I call BS on that. It started getting a little too twee for me at that point.
In the end, I extremely disliked The Magdalen Girls. It had an interesting premise that was, unfortunately, squandered by bad writing, poorly developed characters, and just an all around bad book.
First things first: The writing in The Magdalen Girls leaves a lot to be desired. It is extremely simplistic. Now, that's something I can overlook depending on what else the book has going for it, but it was really noticeable in this book. There's just a lot of telling and very little showing. Furthermore, the writing was clunky and awkward. For example, the reference to Sister Anne and Mother Superior was not done well at all. I didn't figure out that this was supposed to be one person until I was a ways into the book. Why refer to this character as Mother Superior AND Sister Anne? It does nothing but confuse the readers.
The character development in The Magdalen Girls wasn't any better than the writing. And by that I mean that there was very little development. You don't really get to know Teagan nor Nora nor Lea that well at all. And I saw very little growth in them. Also, my God were Teagan and Nora prone to doing stupid, stupid things all the time. Before that, I merely didn't care about them. After that, I started getting supremely annoyed by them. They kept getting caught doing this things because they were (and it really does bear repeating) really stupid. If you're going to be sneaky, again, please be smart about it.
Mother Superior/Sister Anne might be the only character that one might think had some growth, but really she's just badly developed. She comes across as one of the biggest cartoon villains known to man. She doesn't come off as a flawed character battling between good and evil, but rather comes across as someone who's an actual sociopath. It was a bit too much. I kept expecting her to start twirling a mustache. And then, after all this build up of her being the biggest villain since Dolores Umbridge, I'm supposed to believe that she's repentant? Nope. I call BS on that. It started getting a little too twee for me at that point.
In the end, I extremely disliked The Magdalen Girls. It had an interesting premise that was, unfortunately, squandered by bad writing, poorly developed characters, and just an all around bad book.
Tragic. That is the word that came to mind as I was reading this story. This book was slow to start, but once I got into it I was sucked in. It's the story of a Magdalene Laundry in 1962 Dublin. It centers around three young Irish girls who are dealt a cruel fate by circumstances out of their control. It's based in historical fact by a real life event. These nunneries were a place that girls & women were sent for numerous reasons. Some were of low moral standards & were former prostitutes who were sent to be rehabilitated, but most were not. Most of these women were sent away because their families could no longer care for them and some were sent because they were just too pretty and tempted the wrong man. I had no idea that these nunneries existed. The last one closed in 1996. That's only 21 years ago! It's horrifying to think how many lives were changed and ruined during this time. These girls were basically locked up & forced to live in subpar conditions. They were abused and forced to work as slaves until their spirits were broken. The ending is rather bittersweet, but I'm glad to have been enlightened about this horrid part of our history.
3.5 stars
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Set in Dublin, Ireland in 1962, The Magdalen Girls tells the story of two different girls sent to one of the Magdalen laundries. The girls are thought of as wanton women and their lives are signed away by their families and become prisoners of the Catholic Church. Teagan and Nora are both determined to survive the back-breaking work and the emotional torment reigned down upon them, and look for a chance to escape.
This book is based around a point in Irish history that makes me burn with anger and I definitely felt a lot of emotions while reading this book from anger to despair and now and again, hope. I think the laundry depicted in this book seemed tamer than a lot of the ones that did exist and the girls living there seemed to have a slightly easier time of it than the ones that were practically tortured daily by the nuns. However, it still managed to depict the horrors of becoming a prisoner for simply being a woman (for example, Teagan is sent because a priest had sexual feelings for her, even though she did nothing wrong) and how so many women refused to let the nuns break them down.
I wasn’t completely mad about the plot around the Mother Superior Sister Anne. She is given a back story, and a link to one of the girls, and at times it’s used as an excuse for her bad behaviour and the reader is almost suppose to feel sorry for her. While this might work for Sister Anne, it doesn’t accurately represent every other Mother Superior and priest involved in the laundries, who seemed happy to have a literal God complex and just be terrible, terrible people. I think I just hated Sister Anne’s history because I feel so emotional about the story, I wasn’t going to let her have any excuses for her behaviour. I also could have done without some of the ‘ghost stories’ that were mentioned now and again with Lea’s spirit stories and the visions of the Virgin Mary.
I was more gripped into this book than I thought it would be too and it was a good, if not challenging, read. If people don’t know too much about the Magdalene laundries and want to learn more, this fictionalised version of one of them would be a good place to start!
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Set in Dublin, Ireland in 1962, The Magdalen Girls tells the story of two different girls sent to one of the Magdalen laundries. The girls are thought of as wanton women and their lives are signed away by their families and become prisoners of the Catholic Church. Teagan and Nora are both determined to survive the back-breaking work and the emotional torment reigned down upon them, and look for a chance to escape.
This book is based around a point in Irish history that makes me burn with anger and I definitely felt a lot of emotions while reading this book from anger to despair and now and again, hope. I think the laundry depicted in this book seemed tamer than a lot of the ones that did exist and the girls living there seemed to have a slightly easier time of it than the ones that were practically tortured daily by the nuns. However, it still managed to depict the horrors of becoming a prisoner for simply being a woman (for example, Teagan is sent because a priest had sexual feelings for her, even though she did nothing wrong) and how so many women refused to let the nuns break them down.
I wasn’t completely mad about the plot around the Mother Superior Sister Anne. She is given a back story, and a link to one of the girls, and at times it’s used as an excuse for her bad behaviour and the reader is almost suppose to feel sorry for her. While this might work for Sister Anne, it doesn’t accurately represent every other Mother Superior and priest involved in the laundries, who seemed happy to have a literal God complex and just be terrible, terrible people. I think I just hated Sister Anne’s history because I feel so emotional about the story, I wasn’t going to let her have any excuses for her behaviour. I also could have done without some of the ‘ghost stories’ that were mentioned now and again with Lea’s spirit stories and the visions of the Virgin Mary.
I was more gripped into this book than I thought it would be too and it was a good, if not challenging, read. If people don’t know too much about the Magdalene laundries and want to learn more, this fictionalised version of one of them would be a good place to start!
Completed as #25 of the Booklist Queen's 2020 Reading Challenge
I enjoyed this even though it was a disturbing story. The seeing of the holy spirits did impact my writing as that isn't my cup of tea.
I enjoyed this even though it was a disturbing story. The seeing of the holy spirits did impact my writing as that isn't my cup of tea.